Dear Clients, Volunteers and Staff,
Wow! Last weekend’s Braking the Cycle™ AIDS Ride—a civil rights march on two wheels—was so amazing and I have so many stories to share. From September 28-30th, hundreds of us took on a three-day ride from Boston to New York and made the 285-mile journey together, driving home the point that the AIDS community is alive and well and committed to taking the fight to the streets, and I’d like to share my own experience.
Last Friday, we started off in Boston, with a cold drizzle coming down during the opening ceremony at 6:30 am. Shortly thereafter, the drizzle turned into a steady and sometimes very hard rain. With our shoes—along with everything else—soaked through, once we began we dreaded stopping at all, which would mean losing our body heat and becoming susceptible to chills. But with the support of my two riding buddies, Mark Alicea and Nestor Ramos, as well as lots of cheering along the way, I managed to log 93 miles, from Boston through Rhode Island, in just under 10 hours before being swept up by the Braking the Cycle™ crew for the last 5 miles due to a heavy thunder storm.
Saturday mostly made up for Friday. It was chilly at 6:30am, but the jackets soon came off in the face of the daunting hills, including the infamous Mount Archer. I will confess, we walked our bikes up a few of them. But we made it under our own energy. We had a rainy lunch, in a Connecticut State Park on the Sound. But then riding through New Haven, West Haven and Milford, the sun broke through, giving us occasional bursts of encouragement. Nestor fell hard at mile 102, but he got back on the bike. He also got a flat tire at mile 103.5, so we walked in the last half-mile, logging a total of 104 miles for the day.
Then came Sunday. It started out as a gorgeous, crisp day. And we were riding strong along the coast at the front of the pack. Then came more hills, and I had a flat. It took a while to get it fixed at the first Oasis, but after it was fixed, we just started eating ground, steadily catching up with our colleagues.
About 43 miles in, by Greenwich, I ate too much ground! Paying too much attention to someone else, I hit my front brakes too hard, did a beautiful somersault, and landed on my chin. That meant an ambulance trip to the Stamford Hospital and 4 stitches in the chin. Mark stayed with me the whole time, while Nestor stayed on the road for us. The crew swept us from the hospital to grab some lunch and put us back out on the road in Yonkers. We lost about 20 miles, but kicked it in for the final 20, blazing through the Bronx and Manhattan.
Mark and Nestor kept me company and kept me motivated the entire ride. But I could tell a sweet or funny story about every member of the Housing Works’ Team, which, to my chagrin, was named “Kings of the Road.” There was Mr. Soul Cycle, Andrew Greene, who treated every hill as though a spin class instructor had just turned up the volume on the music; Matt Nasser, The Bull, who came in at the front of the pack every day and never once dreamed of walking; Soledad Soriano-Kaplan, who made up for the miles she missed the first day on a stationary bike in the gym; David Raper, who dressed in yellow to match his yellow bike; Rob Bannon, who caught a squirrel in his front spokes; Nathan, who rode with a broken pedal the whole first day; Matt Bernardo, who got caught peeing in the woods because he had “over-hydrated”; Juan Herrera, who decided to get a haircut on the road to improve his speed—a decision he now regrets; Kenneth Harvin, who paced himself such that he always looked like he was out for an afternoon ride in the park and Matt Cartwright, who wore a boa on Red Dress day and managed to completely stain his white jersey; Dan Wilson, who had to explain to me how to use “butt-butter”; and the stories just go on and on.
In Housing Works’ first year as the benficiary of Braking the Cycle™, Housing Works brought a total of 20 riders and crew, who have already raised over $85,000 and with more money still coming in. Our presence really solidified the ride as a major new fundraiser and “friend” raiser for Housing Works. In one of the many comments I received yesterday: “Charles, it was an honor, a privilege, and a pleasure riding with you and the whole fleet of Housing Works riders. You are all amazing, and your passions and beliefs radiate from you – and that is a beautiful thing to behold. Thank you for all you do.”
I have already signed up to do the ride again next year, and I know that a number of the “Kings of the Road” have already done the same. I hope you will consider it yourself. It is an amazing challenge, both physically and emotionally, and it really reminds you why you are a part of this community. If you sign up with Andrew Greene now, you have a whole year to train and to start raising your sponsorships. If you don’t want to ride, I hope you will sponsor one of our other riders. I will have my page up in the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, I want to thank all of the folks who rode or crewed for the Housing Works Team, who are listed below. Please feel free to go online and sponsor one of them if you haven’t already. As of this morning, the team has raised over $85,000. This will certainly go up as money is still coming in and I have lots of checks to process.
Love,
Charles
Housing Works Riders
Mark Alicea
Rob Bannon
Matthew Bernardo
Matt Cartwright
Nathan Cockrell
Mark Denecour
John Dunn
Andrew Greene
Kenneth Harvin
Juan Herrera
Alan Miles
Matt Nasser
Nestor Ramos
David Raper
Soledad Soriano-Kaplan
Housing Works Crew Members
Gerry Brown
Ed Linders
Joe Magnone
Dan Wilson
Follow the Update blog on Twitter @housingworks.
